The next frontier

“What I’ve talked about the entire series and throughout this playoffs is about intensity and effort, desire and will of our players.” — Bill Laimbeer

You can feel it in the pregame shoot-around before each game, the electricity permeating the stands. You can sense the anxious vibe in each individual seat as the fans file in. You can hear it in the voices echoing around you as the players make their way out of the tunnel for warm-ups, their pulse already picking up speed. You can see it on the players faces, especially their eyes, as the referee steps to center court with the ball in hand, ready to toss it up. And just as the ball soars into the air and the clock starts, you can feel it saturate an entire arena for the next 48 minutes from now until April 14th.

The Playoffs are coming.

It’s already started, that buildup, that percolating excitement before each game because at this point every single one matters. Each game from now until the middle of April will mean more than just improving your seeding, more than just accumulating as many wins as you can to try and grab home court advantage because it’s not about the games at all anymore.

It’s about setting a tone. About sending a message to not only your opponents, but to yourselves.

“It’s time. And it starts with me.”

The intensity, the effort, the desire, the will to rise your game as an individual but more importantly as a team and a collective unit begins now. Because no matter how great the regular season is for professional basketball, the playoffs are a different animal altogether, exponentially amplified in excitement and anticipation, percolating with a weight and frenzy that each moment merits to an almost unbearable degree. The scintillating shadow of what could be already looms large over the Ford Center.

Because each game, each half, each quarter, each possession, each shot, dribble, pass and decision in the playoffs can not only turn a game, but a series, a career and even a franchise. You don’t even have to have a team of your own to enjoy the NBA playoffs because the hustle and the physical, psychological and emotional investment is so viscerally on display at all times. You can see it, almost tangibly feel it through the stands or through your television set. You can witness, almost touch, the sheer heart that each player lays on the line each trip down the court. It’s a beautiful, captivating thing.

But when your team is there, when you have a vested interest as a fan, you experience that exponential amplification in excitement, nervousness and intensity on a much more personal level. You feel like it’s happening not around you, but to you. Can you imagine how the players feel? Knowing that each game carries the burden of impacting tomorrow, of how this year could be the year where your career changes forever. Maybe it’s not winning a championship immediately, but what if it is the maiden voyage into the next frontier of meaningful runs at a ring for the next decade?

You can witness, almost touch, the sheer heart that each player lays on the line each trip down the court. It's a beautiful, captivating thing.

If I’m overdoing it, if you think I’m painting a picture of intensity and importance too vividly for something as trivial as a game then you definitely have the right perspective on where sports should fit in the grand scheme of things. You’ll never hear me say different. It is just a game and there are infinitely more important things out there to put your time and effort into. But you know what, sometimes the commercial is right, sometimes a sport, from football and basketball on down, is more than just a game.

Sometimes it’s about a ravaged city finding hope and joy again in their football team’s opening season game back in the Superdome. Sometimes it’s about a father flying back from his sick daughter’s hospital bed and walking into an arena, dressing and immediately checking into the game to a thunderous applause as he hits clutch shot after clutch shot to spur his team onto victory. Sometimes it’s about those moments that give you chills, that take your breath away at the sheer beauty that human athleticism is capable of and what selfless teamwork can accomplish together that could never be accomplished as an individual.

Other times it’s about a father teaching his son the proper follow through on a jumpshot when they otherwise would not have made time for one another. Or a family standing to their feet as their superstar player sinks a buzzer beating three, embracing not just the outcome of an athletic event but the wondrous joy of experiencing it together.

No matter how you spin it, just like life, the game of basketball is about moments. Those moments that stick with you throughout your life, that inspire you to dream, that you can share with the people you love or with 18,000 perfect strangers who for at least those 48 minutes, might as well be family.

And there’s just no better place in all of basketball to experience those moments than in the playoffs.

@Mully MullsNot to date myself, but there has been a player like KD...2nd player taken in draft. Averaged 34 ppg in his third year (1974-75). Didn't have supporting players necessary to win championships. Very similar game, though no three point line when in his prime.

On today's main theme - wouldn't it be electric if the sell-out crowds actually showed up for the games? Come on, if you're not going, give your tickets to a friend, Big Brothers, a church or whatever.

@ J.G. You should get a kick-back from Bennett and Co. for this, and they should have sent it out in the season ticket renewal packets! Reminds me again (as if I needed reminding)just WHY I feel totally justified sending a check slightly higher than my mortgage in to renew our season tickets!

John :@ DurantDurant:What he’s saying is that after the Palace Brawl, the Pacers fell apart. They could never recover…and the year the Pistons won the title was the LAST TIME the Pacers were relevant when talking about the playoffs. Because the season AFTER was when the brawl happened.

Thanks John. That's what I was going for, definitely wasn't trying to imply that the brawl happened during the playoffs.

I know the Pacers were a very strong team before the brawl but that marked the definitive end of their run. I marked the Prince block because they were literally at the door and it shifted. Had the brawl never happened, it may not have turned out that way. We obviously can't know that for sure, so I see Prince's momentum shifter as pivotal.

@GAPThanks for the kind words GAP (and everyone else). Your words (which were definitely too kind) are certainly appreciated. As is everyone's continued contribution to the awesome site that Royce has built.

And I'm right there with you, there are two times of the year that I desperately want to play ball as much as I can, the start of basketball season. And the whirlwind month at the start of March Madness and the playoffs!

What he's saying is that after the Palace Brawl, the Pacers fell apart. They could never recover...and the year the Pistons won the title was the LAST TIME the Pacers were relevant when talking about the playoffs. Because the season AFTER was when the brawl happened.

J.G., I feel honored to have met such a influential writer in person(no disrecpect Royce, you're up there as well). Damn man, you make me wanna go out and play ball all day long like I did when I was younger! :-)

@justinI'm not really sure, and that IS a good point... but a question to ask yourself is... What is Ibaka's ceiling? Nobody really knows. Would a cross between Chris Bosh and Josh Smith be enough? He could end up being a Dikembe with an offensive game. You'd think that that would be enough of an inside presence.

In all fairness too... there's never been a player like KD, so the make-up of the team around him can afford to be different and not like the status-quo of "Dynasties." ALL great teams need that guy who can help out the stud by hitting an open 3 in the clutch and Horry seems to be the best modern-day example of that..... at least until Green does work here soon....

Brett :I was a Pacers fan before getting this team and I remember that series against Detroit the year they won the title. Indy was going ahead and looked to be pulling away with momentum during Game 2 of the Conference Finals and then Tayshaun Prince blocked Reggie Miller’s breakaway layup and the Pistons stormed back. That was Indy’s last shot before the infamous brawl and their complete destruction.

Umm, what? The Malice at the Palace was a regular season game, in something like November. Artest got suspended for the rest of the season which was at the time 70+ games.

I have that feeling like when OU is about to play a National Championship game, and you know that a win or loss means the difference between national respect, great recruiting/pub, and the all important banner to hang up there with the rest of those great and timeless teams and legends of the game...or a rough off-season, a hangover that lasts until March, and lots of bitching to the Sports Animal.

Thank God for The Thunder!!

Imagine how crappy it would be if we had no Thunder, and your an OU fan THIS year?! Ouch!!

I love this nervous feeling! It's like when the tornado sirens go off and you can actually SEE the thing, and your off to the "family safe area", ie bathroom and your just waiting, and hoping for a good outcome.Tornadoes kinda rule...I believe!! Go Thunder!!

For some strange reason, I see this team doin some serious work this postseason regardless of who they face.

Oh yeah... and speaking for the career thing... I have this undescribable yet absolute feeling that when we are doing our title runs, Jeff Green will equal our Robert Horry. Let's just hope he gets all his (many) rings with one team...

J.G. :Because each game, each half, each quarter, each possession, each shot, dribble, pass and decision in the playoffs can not only turn a game, but a series, a career and even a franchise.P>

This is definitely true. I was a Pacers fan before getting this team and I remember that series against Detroit the year they won the title. Indy was going ahead and looked to be pulling away with momentum during Game 2 of the Conference Finals and then Tayshaun Prince blocked Reggie Miller's breakaway layup and the Pistons stormed back. That was Indy's last shot before the infamous brawl and their complete destruction.

That was a tough moment. I don't know how, but as I watched that I knew that series was over. You could just feel the momentum sucked out of the Pacers and Detroit rode that to the title.

I hope we never feel that with this team. I hope we get to that promised land and get to celebrate with a nice parade through Bricktown!

f5alcon :@Keep Collisoni think what the ford center needs is more sit down food places, i hate eating in my seat in the arena, way too cramped.

I also think it could use more of a professional sports feel to it. At least in ATL all of the shops/resturants had interesting facades and themes which made being in the arena seem almost larger than life. From what I understand those things will be addressed this summer. I can't wait to come back to OK for a game next season.

It does help that Philips Arena (Hawks) and Time Warner Cable Arena (Bobcats)are two of the newest arenas as well.

Vega :I’ll be at the Thunder/Bobcats game tomorrow. If you’re watching it on TV and see a guy with shaggy blond hair wearing a navy blue Thunder shirt and holding a sign that says “IBAKA” on it, that’s me.

I'm going as well. Where are you going to be sitting? I'm in section 116. I'll be wearing my Durant away jersey shirt. I was back in OK for a game during Christmas and I went to ATL for the game earlier this season and I'm curious to see how different the arenas are from one another. The Ford center is nice but I think the renovations over this summer will keep it competitive with others in the league.